A Typological Analysis of Nursing Home Environments During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risks and Potential

Abstract

The age group with the highest mortality from COVID-19 in Spain includes those above 70 years old. The vulnerable nature of this age group, combined with the inherent risks of living collectively in a healthcare environment, has meant that nursing homes have been severely affected by coronavirus, with high rates of infection and mortality. However, it has been demonstrated during this pandemic that a strong infection prevention and control program, which impacts the management of the space and how we relate to it, is vital to protect both residents and healthcare personnel, which results in the creation of resilient communities. Thus, it is considered as a hypothesis of this research that the spatial configuration and its space syntaxis can directly influence the probabilities of propagation of airborne diseases such as COVID-19 in nursing homes. This research aims to identify the type of nursing home that may have the least propagation of COVID-19 depending on its spatial structure. The analysis will be performed under four parameters that directly affect the spread of the virus: density, social distancing, sectorization, and ventilation. The study of these parameters is based on the use of a comparative graphic method. In addition to these maps, which allow an intuitive understanding of each phenomenon, a comparative summary table is presented to identify which type of residence is more appropriate in terms of the parameters analyzed during a COVID-19 crisis.